I was thinking about some of the bad and tacky Christmas gifts I’ve received over the years. I haven’t received many bad gifts, mind you, but there have been a few that left me thinking, what the …? I mean really, what were they thinking?

We’ve all heard the saying, ‘it’s the thought that counts‘. I remember my mother saying this to me on several occasions as a child. I do believe this is true. It IS the thought that counts… so just what would a person be thinking if they give/gave these gifts as gifts?

Top 5 Worst Christmas Gifts

Pink lawn flamingos – "I think your yard is already tacky and this would fit right in." The only way these lawn ornaments/decorations are okay is if you are 100% sure that the recipient already has pink flamingos in their yard. To be honest … there isn’t a time when pink flamingos are okay.

Fruit cake – "I don’t care enough about you to take the time to find something special… so I got you this 5 year old fruit cake." Only give fruit cake if you made it fresh yourself and want to give something homemade; probably best to give to a family member only.

Bathroom scales – "You’re fat… use these." There is never, I do mean never, a good time to give someone bathroom scales as a Christmas gift.

Tacky Christmas Sweaters

Tacky and ugly Christmas sweaters -"When I saw this it reminded me of you." The only way it is okay to give an ugly Christmas sweater is if you are buying for your grandmother or you know someone that participates in ugly Christmas sweater parties … then this gift may be acceptable.

Framed photo of yourself – "I know I’m beautiful / handsome and you long to look at me hanging on your wall every day." Unless this gift is for your significant other or your mother… no one wants your framed picture.

Honorable mention:

Socks and underwear – if you know the person really needs socks and underwear give it to them some other time of the year… not as a Christmas present, especially if the recipient is a guy.

Fancy shaped bathroom soaps – you know … those seashell soaps, etc.

Re-gift – if someone gave you a gift that you don’t like, what makes you think someone else will. Also be careful that you don’t give a re-gift to the person that gave you the gift in the first place.

Another saying comes to mind here, ‘it’s better to give than receive‘… if you’re the one giving the above gifts this IS so true!

Please don’t think you have to spend a lot of money to get someone a nice Christmas gift. You don’t have to spend any money! Homemade gifts are great if you keep your recipient in mind and your gift comes from the heart. Avoid giving bad Christmas gifts by not giving to someone you don’t really even know or care about.

We would love to hear about the worst gift you’ve ever received. So sound off and share it with us; let’s see if you can top my top 5 worst Christmas list. Looking forward to hearing from you.

I agree with everything on here except the socks and underwear thing. I need that stuff and I specifically ask for it most xmases. But I never get it, instead I always get crap I never wanted because for some reason, buying stuff I don’t want or need is more thoughtful then just getting me socks and underwear.

@Chris: I see where you’re coming from … socks and underwear is something that people, especially men, don’t get for themselves. So getting them for gifts can be a useful idea. Okay, socks and underwear is NOT a bad or tacky gift. I will say thought that a mother or mother-in-law shouldn’t give them as a gift to their grown sons. But that’s just me. 🙂

One year I got a camera for Christmas. Normally, that would be a great present, but it just so happened that I got the exact camera the year before. My hubby borrowed it in July & it was stolen along with his laptop, etc., etc. Our homeowners insurance paid to replace everything. I started telling him in October he needed to get my camera replaced before Christmas. Imagine how surprised I was to unwrap it as my "big" gift.

Judgments of aesthetic value seem often to involve many other kinds of issues as well. Responses such as disgust show that sensory detection is linked in instinctual ways to facial expressions, and even behaviors like the gag reflex. Yet disgust can often be a learned or cultural issue too; as Darwin pointed out, seeing a stripe of soup in a man’s beard is disgusting even though neither soup nor beards are themselves disgusting. Aesthetic judgments may be linked to emotions or, like emotions, partially embodied in our physical reactions. Seeing a sublime view of a landscape may give us a reaction of awe, which might manifest physically as an increased heart rate or widened eyes. These unconscious reactions may even be partly constitutive of what makes our judgment a judgment that the landscape is sublime.

FROM A MOTHER IN LAW THAT CARES, A FLANNEL SHIRT FROM THE DOLLAR STORE STILL IN THE BAG AN TWO SIZES TO SMALL AND A USED DVD NOT BAD UNTIL YOU COMPARE THE ZIP UP TIES FROM THE WIFE… AND THESE WAS NOT JOKE GIFTS.

My Mother-in-law gives the WORST gifts, so I swear there is a store somewhere called “Junk R Us” and that is where she shops! I have received every kind of plastic, glittery, junky, tacky, fit for the trashcan, thing she can find.

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